1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to devices used to crush and pulverize small objects into fine powder. In particular, the present invention relates to a portable, battery-operated pill crushing device having a series of rollers that operate to crush and pulverize pills into a fine powder.
2. Description of the Related Art
As our population ages, larger and larger proportions of adults depend on daily medication for their health and well being. The range of ailments treatable today with only a pill is staggering, but the shear number of pills that must be taken has grown similarly large. However, some patients cannot swallow or have difficulty swallowing pills. Such patients often take their medication crushed—mixed in with food or drink. Whether at home or in a managed care situation, the job of crushing the medication is often tedious and difficult.
In the past, a traditional mortar and pestle have been used to manually crush the pill into a fine powder, which is then stored in a medicine cup until it is administered to the patient. The use of a mortar and pestle, however, has several problems. For example, the mortar and pestle must be thoroughly cleaned after each use to prevent the matter with which it is next used from becoming contaminated with the residue from the last substance with which it was used. The crushed powder adhering to the mortar or the pestle can reduce the ultimate dosage transferred to the patient resulting in sub-standard treatment. Moreover, since the mortar and pestle are operated manually by each care provider, it is difficult to achieve consistent particle sizes from the crushed pills.
Manual and motor-driven devices have been proposed in the past to overcome these problems. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,067,666 (Sussman) discloses a portable pill crusher that uses a cam-driven, spring-biased ram to pulverize a pill. U.S. Pat. No. 4,121,775 (Roseberg et al.) discloses a pulverizer that includes a pestle movable into a bowl. U.S. Pat. No. 6,059,209 (Barson) discloses a manually operated apparatus for crushing tablets into powders using a pivotable hammer and a press for applying pressure to the hammer. U.S. Pat. No. 6,523,766 (Watt) discloses a portable pill crushing device that uses a mallet attached to a thrust arm to pulverize pills, and includes a plastic bag and sealing apparatus for encasing the pills in plastic during the crushing operation. U.S. Pat. No. 5,531,386 (Jensen) discloses a pill pulverizing apparatus that uses a hammer and spring to crush pills contained in a plastic envelope. However, none of these prior art devices provide pill crushing devices that adequately accommodate the needs of patients having difficulty swallowing pills and those administering medications to such patients.